Municipal boundaries no longer frame the physical patterns of our daily travels to work, study or to access services. Cities are more and more interlinked with the peri-urban and rural areas surrounding them, which poses challenges spanning administrative borders. How to provide high quality, affordable and sustainable living conditions for all residents in the agglomeration? When municipalities act separately, it seems to take serious toll on the environment, social equity and public finances on the long-run. How to build an effective cooperation among local authorities seeking the long-term interest of the entire functional urban area? How does cohesion policy help this now and in the future? What lessons can be drawn at local level on the benefits and challenges of metropolitan cooperation?

Objectives:

·better understand how metropolitan cooperation can help build sustainable prosperity in city-regions

·understand how cohesion policy support intermunicipal cooperation in the current period

·familiarise with local challenges and solutions to promote cooperation among municipalities

·exchange to inspire members and help to raise local ambitions for metropolitan cooperation

·influence national policy-makers to explicitly support intermunicipal cooperation through cohesion policy

Themes and activities:

The event will explore the link between cohesion policy investments and metropolitan cooperation, looking at the integrated, sustainable urban development strategies developed at the functional urban area scale. Besides the drivers, the event will cover practical challenges and incentive s for intermunicipal cooperation from various perspectives through:

·Presentations from all levels of government (EU, national and local perspectives)

·Peer discussions

·Study visits in the metropolitan area

Expected outcomes:

The event is expected to provide participants with a more comprehensive understanding on the benefits of cooperation at metropolitan scale and on how the EU cohesion policy regulations support this now and after 2020. The presentations and discussions should not only help cities develop metropolitan strategies for the future funding period but also serve with convincing arguments towards national authorities to create an enabling framework for cooperation in functional urban areas and use cohesion policy as an instrument to promote such initiatives.